GLOBAL SPACES: The Rothko Chapel
For the first studio project as a second-year student, we are tasked to design a non-denominational spiritual space in the corner of West Church Avenue and Locust Street in downtown Knoxville. This space centers on the ideology of the Quaker community and their usage of a public space called a “meetinghouse” wherein the community gathers to partake in spiritual enlightenment. Being that the space is non-denominational, the design must adhere to the pureness of forms to induce spiritual awakening that can relate to people of all walks of life. That said, for this week’s case study, I feel compelled to share the inspiration that is guiding me through my own design process: The Rothko Chapel.
The Rothko Chapel, located in Houston, Texas, was built in 1971 by the culminating design efforts from both Mark Rothko himself and architect Philip Johnson. John and Dominique de Menil commissioned Rothko to create a spiritual space wherein Rothko’s enigmatic paintings can come to life. Rothko felt honored to have the opportunity to have his paintings housed in such a space, because a few years before this offer, he felt displeased with the way the Four Season’s restaurant in Manhattan’s Seagrams building handled his paintings. Throughout his career, Rothko felt that people misinterpreted his intentions with his paintings, but being able to display them in a spiritual space that brings people together from all walks of life was the appropriate haven he intended for his paintings to be displayed in.
The building itself is very austere. It is enigmatic, and thought provoking. It was Rothko’s idea to keep the space pure and void of superfluity, and so he generated a windowless one-story building with a flat roof and brick exterior. The plan is octagonal in shape with simple, wooden benches, and a baffled skylight. The approach before the main interior space is also accentuated by a reflecting pool with a sculpture piece by Barnett Newman called the Broken Obelisk.
This building brought me great inspiration because I felt that it blended the ideas of art and architecture so naturally. The space truly becomes a place of spiritual awakening through the foreboding, but silent power of Rothko’s paintings. Each of the fourteen paintings, with the dimensions as great as fifteen and eleven feet, evokes tension and abstraction. The hues might seem solid black at first glance, but in reality, each stroke has hints of purples and reds, and I believe that this holds power in itself. I think that these certain hues describe the human emotions so explicitly. The darkness in the interior caused by these paintings is of great importance in provoking spiritual contemplation in the space. It reminds viewers of the existence of nothingness, wherein the only visible image is our own emotions.
Though Rothko himself never made it to see the built chapel, I believe that he has left a significant gift to share with all of us. He wanted to paint both the finite and the infinite, and though the significance of his painting may become obscured to others, The Rothko Chapel holds an indescribable entity that makes it possible to affect its spectators in different ways. I think that faith is one of the most beautiful human emotions, because having something to believe in, in this ephemeral world that we live in, whatever it may be, gives our lives meaning. It gives us the strength and the will to carry on.